It’s a…

PublishedAugust 9, 2011

’bout time I posted huh? (That title was pretty mean wasn’t it?) I will not write a book about everything that has kept me from blogging, but I assure you, most of it, has been good! Our family has had some struggles with illness here and there, the dishwasher went out, PookieBear fell and knocked her two front baby teeth pretty hard (though they are still staying put), and Rhea has been swamped with projects/work and has not been home too much. All that aside, God has been faithful and we are getting so very excited to holding our sweet baby in a few weeks.

The other day, Rhea shared that, to him, giving birth to our baby is like going to Russia for that second trip to pick up your adopted child and bring him or her home.Our first trip through embryo adoption was to go meet our child in Dallas where we had the frozen embryo transfer procedure. We “met” our children under a microscope that sat in a sterile and secure incubator. Rhea and I were able to look and see the 3 of our 6 adopted children who had lived through the night. It is a moment in time that goes far beyond hearing we were chosen by a placing family, and far beyond a positive pregnancy test. Time stood still as Rhea and I marveled at what God was doing amongst the office full of reproductive intervention. Three precious babies who had been frozen in a tank in a dark room since March of 1999 were now under a microscope in a warm incubator ready to be moved into a natural, God-designed environment where babies should grow.

Jumping forward from that December morning, we are now approaching the birth of the one baby who God chose to continue to grow and live in our family. We are three weeks away from that “second trip”, as Rhea shared, to bring our child home with us to shower with love and raise him/her in the admonition of the Lord (Eph. 6:4).

These last few weeks, I have been to the hospital for numerous doctors’ appointments. All is well, just the typical high-risk monitoring one must undergo when one has a blood clotting disorder. The blessing of weekly, doppler heartbeat checks and ultrasounds has been actually a joy to hear and see each week. We pray to share our adoption story as God leads us as we come into contact with people while we are out and about, while in waiting rooms, and standing in line at the store. We always have at least one of our children with us and they are able to witness and sometimes participate in these encounters with others.

Yes, embryo adoption is not a type of adoption that many people have heard of, but our family is saddened when the door to share our experience is halted before we can even get to the topic of EA. The reason the conversation never seems to get to EA? Time and time again, the conversations never get past the following questions:

“How many children did you say you already have?”“Was this pregnancy a surprise?”“So, you really wanted more children?”

Then the one I got not too long ago… “Are all of them from the same marriage?”

Okay, if all that is not sad enough, the last 2 out of 3 of these conversations happened with women in their 60’s-70’s. A generation, I supposed would smile upon larger families. As we teach our children that each child is a blessing from the Lord, they continue to hear the world tell them something so very different.

So many women who read this blog, have struggled, or continue to struggle with infertility. They pray that they will have children. They will treasure every kick, hiccup and pain of pregnancy if God so chooses this for their lives. I have done that very thing this pregnancy. EA was not the adoption road we originally took, but God led us to it and we are so grateful.

So, tomorrow, I will be back in the waiting room for another ultrasound appointment and NST. At any time, I could be sent across the hallway to go to L&D. Am I excited? yes. Is there a part of me that does not want the pregnancy to end yet? yes. And just for the record, I don’t think Mudpuppy is ready either! He/she continues to flip and flop into a new position every day. Seriously! In the last two weeks, this baby has been breech, transverse, head down, transverse, breech again, and now, this morning, I can tell the baby is transverse again. This baby is certainly getting more exercise than me. : )

We were blessed this weekend by our church family with a beautiful baby shower. This baby is so loved by so many who have traveled this road with us. They, too, look forward to meeting our precious one in a few short weeks.

Thank you all for texting and emailing and staying in touch these past six weeks I have been out of touch. I plan to keep you updated as we approach Mudpuppy’s BIRTHday.

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5 Responses to It’s a…

Yea! Thanks for the update! And for the record as the oldest of five kids (and my mom was given grief about such a LARGE family too) I LOVE having so many siblings! I never felt neglected or deprived because there were so many of us. If anything our lives were more full. I had built in friends everywhere we went. In fact this week as 30 something adults we are all on vacation together with our kids. It just gets better and better. Something your kids have to look forward to! I am so glad you and Rhea stepped out in faith and decided to try EA and have “Mudpuppy”! I can’t wait to hear about her “birthday”!

So glad to hear from you!! I was going to email you today if I hadn’t seen an update from you and now here it is 🙂 Awesome how God is continuing to show His face on this journey– and to know how far you have come!! It has been a long journey, nearing its end and then beginning another sweet beginning. Can’t wait for the next post!